John Podesta

John Podesta (8 January 1949-) was an American Democratic Party politician who served as President Bill Clinton's chief of staff from 1998 to 2001 and Barack Obama's counselor from 2014 to 2015. In 2016, he served as the chairman of Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign.

Biography
John Podesta was born in Chicago, Illinois on 8 January 1949 to an Italian father and a Greek mother, and he received his juris doctor from the Georgetown University Law Center in 1976 before becoming a Department of Justice trial attorney. In 1972, he worked for Democratic Party presidential nominee George McGovern's presidential campaign, and he went on to become involved in politics on Capitol Hill during the 1990s. In 1998, he was appointed Chief of Staff to President Bill Clinton, serving for three years. In 2003, he founded the Center for American Progress liberal think tank, and he taught at his alma mater for years. Podesta was known for his interest in government transparency, as he authorized the declassification of thousands of government files under Clinton, and sought to declassify UFO files. From 2014 to 2015, he served as President Barack Obama's Counselor. A year later, he became the chairman for Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign, and Russian intelligence officials hacked his email before Wikileaks published controversial material on Clinton's campaign strategy and positions on 7 October 2016.